Stocks jumped on Friday after an early sell-off, driven by surprisingly weak employment data, later giving way to a sense the bad news would compel the Federal Reserve to extend its aggressive interest rate cuts.

For the week, the Dow rose 1.3 per cent, the Nasdaq improved 5.6 per cent and the broad S&P 500 gained 1.1 per cent.

Stocks initially fell after the Labor Department reported the economy lost jobs in April at the fastest pace in a decade, raising concerns that growing joblessness will cause Americans to pull back on the spending that helped power 10 years of expansion.

Among individual issues, software-maker BEA Systems Inc. fell 9.7 per cent, or $3.88, to $35.98, after Deutsche Banc Alex Brown analyst Jim Moore issued a cautious outlook on the company past the first quarter.